Why is there a religion called ‘landismo’?
Allow me to speak to you this Wednesday in this space about a cyclist whom I admire beyond his sporting quality, who is called Michael Landaand who has had, perhaps unintentionally, the joy of creating a religion around him called ‘landismo’, which captivates all kinds of fans who are capable of forgiving all his sins, if indeed he has ever committed them, and who vibrate like most with their attacks (or attempts) as has not been done since Miguel Indurain He decided to hang up his bike on January 2, 1997. And it has already rained.
The ‘landismo’ is a religion. And it cannot be expressed in any other way. attack landa! And you get up from the sofa, even though its demarcation is neutralized by other figures a few meters after it occurred. landa He is going to the Giro and you expect him to surpass the two third places he has achieved in the 2015 and 2022 editions. And even if in Astana, his old team, before signing for Sky, Movistar and now Bahrain, would have had greater confidence in him eight years ago in Italy, to the misfortune of Alberto counter Just like the edition of the Giro that the Madrid cyclist won would now have a winner from Alava.
the misfortunes
Falls at the most unexpected moments, cuts by the wind when others were successful and, sometimes, giving up races that could have inspired him have hindered the path of a runner with extreme quality in the mountains, an old-fashioned climber and like person, and all those who know him say so, exquisite in all its aspects.
That’s why ‘landismo’ exists. And that is why each spillage of landa it is experienced as the best goal of the most admired striker, as the backhand of the most successful tennis player or as the overtaking of the most skilful driver with the wheel. Because he is a determined cyclist, the one who attacks in Vallter 2,000, in the Volta that concerns us now, or as he has done so many times in the Tour or in the Giro, putting his team to work looking for a victory that has been denied to him, because he has partly had misfortune, as happened to Raymond Poulidorthe grandfather of Mathieu van der Poel, who has crossed his path with cycling stars with whom he has had to live, the ‘old men’ like Chris Froome, to which he gave himself as a gregarious in the victory of Paris in 2017, in a Tour where landa he could have at least aspired to the podium on the Champs Elysées, or in the present with the incredible new generation led above all by Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel.
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They are boys, almost 10 years younger than him, who are impossible to beat. Yet there it appears landa to break the race in the first mountain stage of the Volta, so as not to wrinkle in the Tirreno-Adriatico against another gifted of his generation called Cousin Roglicor to make the fans, especially Basques, dream of the next Tour that starts in Bilbao and passes through his Álava of the soul, with which he will be able to fight for that podium in Paris that in 2017 escaped him for just one second. Incredible to lose him for a time that does not even carry a sigh. Seeing is believing.
For all these reasons there is a sports religion called ‘landismo’, which forgives all its sinners if they really exist and which gives itself to the limit with the cyclist from Alava, who is confident that that moment will finally come. desired attack… all captivated by its magic, forever and ever. Amen.
Source of data and images: elperiodico
